Bad News From Cosmos
Amid the smoke & mirrors of international political pomp, it’s hard to discover all the latest & greatest from all the interesting & ear/eye catching arts found the world over. Case in point is Ukrainian duo Andrii Hrachov & Iryna Bodnar who are Bad News from Cosmos that stare down the the mounds of terrible hype from earth with an elleviate intergalactic/cosmic take & twist. Since their inception circa 2010, the pair have fostered improvised narratives that play upon our obsessions with the life & death continuum with a boundless curiosity. Over the course of various EPs and a recent album that was made within a condensed time frame; Andrii & Iryna have been making music for nearly a decade that works to defy all the flowery superlatives journos work overtime to conjure up.
From their new Anywave Records album Minn Sjó, BNFC presents the Julien Carryn video for “Kosmadomamama” that offers up a leisurely game of tennis played out in nature in the buff with visuals of a vintage cadence. The record itself is something that music geeks have waited years for. The opener “Dear Sarah / Vacuum Times” delivers the sort of fashion week level of narcisicism that will keep it on repeat in your world. “Loser” slow burns with a relentless mystic beauty, the chic-beat-boutique of “One Hundred Twenty Stars”, the restrained post-punk dance beat of “Tsunami”, the trip-tastic adventure of “Someday”, the understated rumbler “Awesome”, the evening entreaty “Hollow Twilight”, to “Human Ways” that could have been a Flying Nun single, the glamorous goth trip on “Dark Wing”, that brings you to the incredible “Remember / Not to Wake Up” that materializes & then disappears into the ether as swiftly as it arrived.
Thoughts on the making of the nudist in nature tennis match visuals for “Kosmodamama”?
We ourselves wouldn’t mind playing good tennis match nude, embraced with wild beauty of post-apocalyptic nature. Our vision of a music video was always bound to nudity, and to meet an artist like Julien Carreyn, who created this film, was our cherished dream. Julien is an artist, who’s every move and every work brings us the joy of being perfectly understood with no words spoken. His unique vision, ethereal artistic pattern is our source of inspiration.
We remember when Myriam, the art-director of our mother-label Anywave, who brought us together, said: Julien hopes that you wouldn’t mind naked women in the video! and we understood that this is it, no one could feel our artistic core better. We admire every aspect of Julien’s work.
Insights on the making of the album Minn Sjó?
We weren’t trying to be over-nice in Minn Sjó. There was no conscious production, or big plans or awesome band photos to promote the whole enterprise…The songs were very quickly and raptly created and recorded in a home living-room. We were in a mood to create ten very simple songs in two weeks just to keep ourselves busy with our favorite thing during the early spring evenings, which usually bring so much trouble to troubled people. We wanted Minn Sjó to possess very strong flavor of a live-album played by duo. And though we plan to work differently on the next record, we still enjoy this one much. It has become a very beautiful CD.
Current state of sounds & scenes in the Ukraine?
Being the insiders, we have certain difficulties in describing the scene and the processes in Ukrainian music. We could say a lot, but we have to choose the angle: there are great bands, there are clubs to throw a nice concert, but there is also a cultural crisis, which deeply influences the scene and doesn’t give enough oxygen for young talents to choose their musical way freely. We think that music in Ukraine has a long way to go along with the culture of the country.
Bad News from Cosmos’ Anywave Records album Minn Sjó is available now.
